Meme Magic: Donald Trump Is The Internet’s Revenge On Lazy Elites

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by MILO4 May 20161,150

Back in June, three days after Donald Trump announced his candidacy, I predicted that the most mischievous pranksters on the internet would rally around him — and that they’d represent a significant electoral and cultural force.

I predicted that his campaign would focus on trolling the lazy, entitled Establishment elites the American people hate so much. I predicted this combination of internet-age sass would prove almost impossible for feeble opponents like Jeb Bush to overcome. As always, I was right.

By the way, regular readers of this column will know how much I hate to toot my own horn, but I also predicted Trump would perform well with blacks. Polling shows him at anywhere between 12 and 25 per cent with black voters in a general election match-up with Clinton. That’s more than double what the GOP normally achieves.

Trump’s supporters have treated the campaign as one long trollfest. First Jeb, then Marco and finally Lyin’ Ted all stumbled and fell before the chaotic power of Trump’s troll army. Facing a hilarious combination of in-jokes, YouTube remixes, and Photoshop mashups, Trump’s opponents were subjected to non-stop ridicule from the cultural powerhouses of the web.

The internet made them look stupid. The internet made them look weak. And what begins on /pol/ and leaks out into Twitter has a way of colouring media coverage and, ultimately, public perception, even among people who don’t frequent message boards.

TV commentators often talk about Trump’s preternatural power to indelibly “brand” his opponents, from “low-energy” Jeb to “Little” Marco and “lying” Ted. No matter how crude and simplistic the labels, they always seems to stick, dumbfounding old-school political observers who are used to candidates competing for the “high road.”

The strategy of GOP bigwigs appears to be: “lose badly, but remain virtuous.”

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The power of Trump’s branding is partly down to the media’s hunger for drama, and partly thanks to his business acumen — but it’s also in large part due to his internet supporters, who have an uncanny ability to create and popularise cultural tropes. Or, as we on the internet have come to know them, memes.

Part of this involves taking Trump’s campaign victories, his slogans, and his “brands” and using the power of the web to amplify them. Trump’s repeated humiliations of Jeb Bush were overlaid online with Sad Romance, an over-the-top tragic violin tune that was already a web meme.

“Little” Marco, of course, like another well-known but diminutive conservative figure, was repeatedly photoshopped to make him look like a dwarf.

Meanwhile, YouTube sensation “Can’t Stump The Trump” (whose name, naturally, was a nod to an already-circulating Trump meme) has attracted more than 5 million views on YouTube just by remixing Trump’s debate performances, adding air horn noises whenever the candidate scores a particularly effective zinger.

Trump’s pledge to “build the wall” has also been seized upon by the internet. Countless jokes, GIFs and videos can now be found around the web dedicated solely to the as-yet-unbuilt Great Wall of Trump. This meme has gone so viral, it still gets the biggest cheers at Trump rallies.

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Establishment types no doubt think this is all silly, schoolyard stuff. And it is. But it’s also effective.

And it’s not just effective with the young ‘uns, either. Older generations may not be as meme-savvy as millennials, but it doesn’t take them long to catch on. One of our staffers’ 65-year old parents enjoyed Can’t Stump The Trump so much that they watched five of the videos back-to-back. Meme propaganda is funny, memorable, persuasive — and it works.

Still, the Establishment doesn’t care. They’d rather take the high road and lose than go down in the dirt and win. Well, they’re getting what they wanted!

Trump’s internet army did more than just riff on his media performances, of course. The relationship between the candidate and his mischievous internet brigade is deeply symbiotic. As well as reacting to Trump and the campaign, the internet has created and popularised its own memes, sometimes out of thin air.

Take the hilarious, infamous comparison of Ted Cruz to the Zodiac Killer. Although it was started by a progressive on Twitter, it was popularised by Trump supporters. Before long, the meme made its way out of obscure internet communities and into the national media.

It got so bad that Heidi Cruz actually had to respond to the rumour, telling voters a day before the Indiana primary that “my husband is not the Zodiac Killer!”

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In another case of a meme reaching the real world, during his victory speech in Indiana, Trump himself referenced the “Trump Train” — a meme that had been created and popularised by the internet.

For web trolls, having one of their pranks garner national attention is the Holy Grail. They call it “meme magic” — when previously-obscure web memes become so influential they start to affect real-world events.

Trump’s candidacy affords the internet the ability to do so virtually every day. No wonder they love him.

Other memes are out there just for the fun of it, but they still help to cement Trump’s reputation as an engine of chaos. There are depictions of Trump as the “God Emperor” of Warhammer: 40,000 mythology. There are depictions of Trump as Pepe the Frog, one of the alt-right’s most popular memes.

The internet had a minor heart attack when Trump retweeted one such depiction from his Twitter account — along with a link to a Can’t Stump The Trump video.

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The mirthful, prankish nature of Trump’s young supporters was revealed again in the closing hours of Ted Cruz’s campaign, when Cruz made the mistake of trying to engage them directly. The university debate champ no doubt expected to have a heated, but ultimately politics-focused back-and-forth with Trump’s supporters.

But they were playing an entirely different game. He received a stream of memes and ridicule instead.

Arguing with battle-tested denizens of Twitter and internet forums is almost always a losing proposition, as Cruz would know if there were anyone on his campaign team who understood the culture.

Elsewhere, a Bernie supporter — another constituency which enjoys a particularly young and effective web presence — offered Cruz a handshake before rapidly withdrawing it and yelling that the candidate “looks like a fish monster.”

Juvenile? Yes. But the kids know this stuff will go viral. The press laps it up. And voters at home don’t want to associate with candidates who keep showing up as the butt of the joke.

Before he bombed out, Cruz tried to tread into meme territory himself with a cringeworthy video of Simpsons impressions. It might have scored points with young voters, oh, say 15 years ago.

It didn’t work. Cruz, bless him, was so terminally unhip that he fed the Trump meme brigades on a daily basis. While not as gaffe-prone as the disastrous Jeb, he certainly wasn’t Mr. Smooth.

From not helping Carly Fiorina up after her fall on a campaign stop in Indiana, to accidentally elbowing his wife in the face twice after his concession speech, there was always something awkward about the oleaginous Cruz.

There are some people who are at one with the web, and Cruz wasn’t one of them. I knew little of meme culture before 2014, but after we discovered each other, it wasn’t long before I became a walking, living, breathing meme myself.

I don’t know if Donald Trump spends time thinking about 4chan, but he has a character and a style that is perfectly in tune with what the web’s miscreants are looking for. And it’s clear from his Twitter account and speeches that he knows what’s going on and enjoys it.

Among the Republican field, Trump was the only candidate who enjoyed a base of support that was truly web-savvy. He combined Ron Paul’s strange ability to mobilise the internet’s meme brigades with an unstumpable media profile.

Caught between the hammer of Trump’s media machine and the anvil of his online troll army, The Donald’s opponents never stood a chance. Trump understands the internet, and the internet might just propel him into the White House. Meme magic is real.

Follow Milo Yiannopoulos (@Nero) on Twitter and Facebook. Android users can download Milo Alert! to be notified about new articles when they are published. Hear him every Friday on The Milo Yiannopoulos Show. Write to Milo atmilo@breitbart.com.

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Romanian hacker Guccifer: I breached Clinton server, 'it was easy'

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Jan. 22, 2014: Marcel Lazar Lehel, 40, is escorted by masked policemen in Bucharest, after being arrested in Arad, 337 miles west of Bucharest. (Reuters) (REUTERS/Mediafax/Silviu Matei)

EXCLUSIVE: The infamous Romanian hacker known as “Guccifer,” speaking exclusively with Fox News, claimed he easily – and repeatedly – breached former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s personal email server in early 2013.   

"For me, it was easy ... easy for me, for everybody," Marcel Lehel Lazar, who goes by the moniker "Guccifer," told Fox News from a Virginia jail where he is being held.

Guccifer’s potential role in the Clinton email investigation was first reported by Fox News last month. The hacker subsequently claimed he was able to access the server – and provided extensive details about how he did it and what he found – over the course of a half-hour jailhouse interview and a series of recorded phone calls with Fox News. Fox News could not independently confirm Lazar’s claims.

The former secretary of state’s server held nearly 2,200 emails containing information now deemed classified, and another 22 at the “Top Secret” level.

The 44-year-old Lazar said he first compromised Clinton confidant Sidney Blumenthal's AOL account, in March 2013, and used that as a stepping stone to the Clinton server. He said he accessed Clinton’s server “like twice,” though he described the contents as “not interest[ing]” to him at the time. 

“I was not paying attention. For me, it was not like the Hillary Clinton server, it was like an email server she and others were using with political voting stuff," Guccifer said.

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The hacker spoke freely with Fox News from the detention center in Alexandria, Va., where he’s been held since his extradition to the U.S. on federal charges relating to other alleged cyber-crimes. Wearing a green jumpsuit, Lazar was relaxed and polite in the monitored secure visitor center, separated by thick security glass. 

In describing the process, Lazar said he did extensive research on the web and then guessed Blumenthal’s security question. Once inside Blumenthal's account, Lazar said he saw dozens of messages from the Clinton email address.

Asked if he was curious about the address, Lazar merely smiled. Asked if he used the same security question approach to access the Clinton emails, he said no – then described how he allegedly got inside.

“For example, when Sidney Blumenthal got an email, I checked the email pattern from Hillary Clinton, from Colin Powell from anyone else to find out the originating IP. … When they send a letter, the email header is the originating IP usually,” Lazar explained. 

He said, “then I scanned with an IP scanner."

Lazar  emphasized that he used readily available web programs to see if the server was “alive” and which ports were open. Lazar identified programs like netscan, Netmap, Wireshark and Angry IP, though it was not possible to confirm independently which, if any, he used.

In the process of mining data from the Blumenthal account, Lazar said he came across evidence that others were on the Clinton server.

"As far as I remember, yes, there were … up to 10, like, IPs from other parts of the world,” he said. 

With no formal computer training, he did most of his hacking from a small Romanian village.

Lazar said he chose to use "proxy servers in Russia," describing them as the best, providing anonymity. 

Cyber experts who spoke with Fox News said the process Lazar described is plausible. The federal indictment Lazar faces in the U.S. for cyber-crimes specifically alleges he used "a proxy server located in Russia" for the Blumenthal compromise.

Each Internet Protocol (IP) address has a unique numeric code, like a phone number or home address.  The Democratic presidential front-runner’s home-brew private server was reportedly installed in her home in Chappaqua, N.Y., and used for all U.S. government business during her term as secretary of state.  

Former State Department IT staffer Bryan Pagliano, who installed and maintained the server, has been granted immunity by the Department of Justice and is cooperating with the FBI in its ongoing criminal investigation into Clinton’s use of the private server. An intelligence source told Fox News last month that Lazar also could help the FBI make the case that Clinton’s email server may have been compromised by a third party.

Asked what he would say to those skeptical of his claims, Lazar cited “the evidence you can find in the Guccifer archives as far as I can remember." 

Writing under his alias Guccifer, Lazar released to media outlets in March 2013 multiple exchanges between Blumenthal and Clinton. They were first reported by the Smoking Gun. 

It was through the Blumenthal compromise that the Clintonemail.com accounts were first publicly revealed.

As recently as this week, Clinton said neither she nor her aides had been contacted by the FBI about the criminal investigation. Asked whether the server had been compromised by foreign hackers, she told MSNBC on Tuesday, “No, not at all.”

Recently extradited, Lazar faces trial Sept. 12 in the Eastern District of Virginia. He has pleaded not guilty to a nine-count federal indictment for his alleged hacking crimes in the U.S. Victims are not named in the indictment but reportedly include Colin Powell, a member of the Bush family and others including Blumenthal. 

Lazar spoke extensively about Blumenthal’s account, noting his emails were “interesting” and had information about “the Middle East and what they were doing there.”

After first writing to the accused hacker on April 19, Fox News accepted two collect calls from him, over a seven-day period, before meeting with him in person at the jail. During these early phone calls, Lazar was more guarded.

After the detention center meeting, Fox News conducted additional interviews by phone and, with Lazar's permission, recorded them for broadcast.  

While Lazar's claims cannot be independently verified, three computer security specialists, including two former senior intelligence officials, said the process described is plausible and the Clinton server, now in FBI custody, may have an electronic record that would confirm or disprove Guccifer’s claims.

"This sounds like the classic attack of the late 1990s. A smart individual who knows the tools and the technology and is looking for glaring weaknesses in Internet-connected devices," Bob Gourley, a former chief technology officer (CTO) for the Defense Intelligence Agency, said.   

Gourley, who has worked in cybersecurity for more than two decades, said the programs cited to access the server can be dual purpose. "These programs are used by security professionals to make sure systems are configured appropriately. Hackers will look and see what the gaps are, and focus their energies on penetrating a system," he said.

Cybersecurity expert Morgan Wright observed, "The Blumenthal account gave [Lazar] a road map to get to the Clinton server. ... You get a foothold in one system. You get intelligence from that system, and then you start to move."

In March, the New York Times reported the Clinton server security logs showed no evidence of a breach.  On whether the Clinton security logs would show a compromise, Wright made the comparison to a bank heist: "Let’s say only one camera was on in the bank. If you don‘t have them all on, or the right one in the right locations, you won’t see what you are looking for.”

Gourley said the logs may not tell the whole story and the hard drives, three years after the fact, may not have a lot of related data left. He also warned: "Unfortunately, in this community, a lot people make up stories and it's hard to tell what's really true until you get into the forensics information and get hard facts.” 

For Lazar, a plea agreement where he cooperates in exchange for a reduced sentence would be advantageous. He told Fox News he has nothing to hide and wants to cooperate with the U.S. government, adding that he has hidden two gigabytes of data that is “too hot” and “it is a matter of national security.”  

In early April, at the time of Lazar’s extradition from a Romanian prison where he already was serving a seven-year sentence for cyber-crimes, a former senior FBI official said the timing was striking.

“Because of the proximity to Sidney Blumenthal and the activity involving Hillary’s emails, [the timing] seems to be something beyond curious,” said Ron Hosko, former assistant director of the FBI’s Criminal Investigative Division from 2012-2014.

There was no immediate response from the FBI or Clinton campaign.

Catherine Herridge is an award-winning Chief Intelligence correspondent for FOX News Channel (FNC) based in Washington, D.C. She covers intelligence, the Justice Department and the Department of Homeland Security. Herridge joined FNC in 1996 as a London-based correspondent.

Pamela K. Browne is Senior Executive Producer at the FOX News Channel (FNC) and is Director of Long-Form Series and Specials. Her journalism has been recognized with several awards. Browne first joined FOX in 1997 to launch the news magazine “Fox Files” and later, “War Stories.”

COMMENTS

AND THEN THERE WAS ONE!!!

Ann Coulter - May 4, 2016

www.anncoulter.com

A guy just won the Republican nomination for president by spending no money, hiring no pollsters, running virtually no TV ads, and just saying what he truly believed no matter how many times people told him he couldn't say that.

I always hoped I'd see this once before I died. It's like to going to Mecca, for Americans. Pay attention, because it's the last time we're going to see it in our lifetimes.

For those of you not yet on the Trump Train, I know you don't want to vote for Hillary, but all the pundits have been trying to convince you that Trump's a complete fraud. (That was between their smug assurances that he wouldn't make it out of Iowa.)

It's odd. When Trump launched his campaign by talking about Mexican rapists and the wall, his critics hysterically denounced him, rushing to TV to say he did NOT represent the Republican Party! Only after it became resoundingly clear that large majorities of Americans agreed with Trump did his critics try a new tack: He doesn't believe it!

That's what my friend Andy McCarthy at the now-defunct National Review wrote recently. I had to spend the weekend figuring out how to attack a friend without saying, "This is the most retarded argument I've ever read."

Here goes: This was not Andy's best effort.

Of all the arguments that could be made against Trump, McCarthy settled on: I don't trust him on immigration. (I'd love to have been a fly on the wall at that pitch meeting.)

He bases this claim on a remark Trump made as a businessman four years ago in which he regurgitated the official GOP line about Romney -- and which was being stated as fact 1 million times a day on CNN, MSNBC and Fox News.

To wit, Trump told Newsmax that Mitt Romney "had a crazy policy of self-deportation which was maniacal," adding, "He lost all of the Latino vote ... he lost everybody who is inspired to come into this country."

It is strange that Trump would denounce "self-deportation," which is like a chocolate sundae compared to his own plans for illegals.

But to give you the tenor of the interview, Trump went on to promote "Celebrity Apprentice," note that he had just bought the Old Post Office building in Washington, D.C., and boast about his recently acquired Ritz-Carlton Golf Club and Spa in Jupiter, Fla. -- "which is a phenomenal area."

Also, a lot of people didn't like the phrase "self-deportation." Why not just say: "They'll go home the same way they came"?

So is Trump lying about his signature issue, immigration? The countervailing evidence to that 2012 pop-off is:

-- Nine months of Trump soaring to the top of the polls and slaying all comers by talking about how he's going to build a wall and make Mexico pay for it;

-- His never, ever, ever backing down on the wall, sanctuary cities, anchor babies, suspending Muslim immigration, etc., etc., despite unprecedented attacks from both the liberal and "conservative" media;

-- The fact that he talks about immigration at every single one of his massive rallies and always gets the biggest, most sustained standing ovations when he mentions the wall;

-- The blizzard of tweets he sent out in 2013 denouncing Rubio's amnesty bill as it was sailing through the Senate, supported by the entire liberal media, Rupert Murdoch, Fox News, most of talk radio, and every other GOP candidate for president this year, including, for a while, Ted Cruz (whose job was to know about bills being voted on in the Senate, unlike a Manhattan developer);

-- Trump's one and only policy guy is the magnificent Stephen Miller, who was Sen. Jeff Sessions' main immigration guy.

And so on.

Maybe Trump is the Manchurian Candidate and contrary to his entire life's work he really just wants fancy people in Manhattan to like him.

Maybe the window into his soul is what he said four years ago about Romney's phrase "self-deportation."

Maybe 50 years of Trump's talking about the working class was all a clever ruse leading to this one shining moment when he would trick Americans into voting for him, so he could sell us out, like any other candidate would.

On the other hand, maybe he's changed his mind about that 2012 remark.

I'm bitter and cynical enough on immigration that I don't trust anyone not to betray us. But if there was ever a candidate we could believe will build a wall and stop the mass importation of the Third World, it's Trump.

COPYRIGHT 2016 ANN COULTER

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COMMENTS

Trump, Clinton all but certain to face off in fall campaign

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INDIANAPOLIS (AP) — Once dismissed as a fringe contender, businessman Donald Trump now is all but certain to lead the Republican Party into the fall presidential campaign against Democratic front-runner Hillary Clinton — a stunning political triumph for a first-time candidate whose appeal to frustrated voters was widely underestimated.

Trump's victory in Indiana Tuesday and Ted Cruz's abrupt decision to drop out resolved the Republican nominee for 2016, but it still left the party in a deep state of uncertainty. Some Republican leaders remain acutely wary of the bombastic billionaire and have insisted they could never support him, even in a faceoff against Clinton.

Nebraska Sen. Ben Sasse, who has consistently said he could not support Trump, wrote on Twitter Tuesday that he was being asked if the Indiana results changed his views. "The answer is simple: No," Sasse wrote.

Republicans such as Sasse worry both about Trump's views on immigration and foreign policy and his over-the-top persona. Hours before clinching victory in Indiana, Trump was floating an unsubstantiated claim that Cruz's father appeared in a 1963 photograph with John F. Kennedy's assassin, Lee Harvey Oswald — citing a report first published by the National Enquirer.

Trump still needs about 200 delegates to formally secure the nomination, but Cruz's decision to end his campaign removed his last major obstacle.

"Ted Cruz — I don't know if he likes me or he doesn't like me — but he is one hell of a competitor," Trump said of his last fierce competitor, whom he had dubbed "lyin' Ted." Trump, in a victory speech that was much lower-key than usual, promised victory in November, vowing anew to put "America first."

On Wednesday morning, Trump revealed in a broadcast interview that he'll "probably go the political route" in naming a vice presidential running mate, saying he's inclined to pick someone who can "help me get legislation passed." Trump didn't identify any of the names under consideration.

He also said on MSNBCB's "Morning Joe" show that he's hoping to decide within a week how to fund a general election campaign, but said he didn't want to accept money from super PACs. "Do I want to sell a couple of buildings? I really don't want to do that," he said. But Trump did say he would help the party raise money.

Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders eked out a victory over Clinton in Indiana, but the outcome will not slow the former secretary of state's march to the Democratic nomination. Heading into Tuesday's voting, Clinton had 92 percent of the delegates she needs.

"I know that the Clinton campaign thinks this campaign is over. They're wrong," Sanders said defiantly in an interview Tuesday night. But Clinton already has turned her attention to the general election.

She and Trump now plunge into a six-month battle for the presidency, with the future of America's immigration laws, health care system and military posture around the world at stake. While Clinton heads into the general election with significant advantages with minority voters and women, Democrats have vowed to not underestimate Trump as his Republican rivals did for too long.

Republican National Committee Chairman Reince Priebus declared the GOP race over, saying on Twitter that Trump would be the party's presumptive nominee.

"We all need to unite and focus on defeating @HillaryClinton," he wrote.

Indeed, Trump's first challenge will be uniting a Republican Party that has been roiled by his candidacy. While some GOP leaders have warmed to the real estate mogul, others see him as a threat to their party's very existence.

Even before the Indiana results were finalized, some conservative leaders were planning a Wednesday meeting to assess the viability of launching a third party candidacy to compete with him in the fall.

Indiana was viewed as the last gasp for Cruz, the fiery Texas conservative. He campaigned aggressively in the state, securing the support of Indiana's governor and announcing businesswoman Carly Fiorina as his running mate but lost momentum in the closing days.

Cruz had clung to the hope that he could keep Trump from reaching the 1,237 delegates needed for the nomination and push the race to a rare contested convention. But aides said he made the decision to drop out early Tuesday evening, shortly after most polls in Indiana had closed.

"I've said I would continue on as long as there was a viable path to victory; tonight I'm sorry to say it appears that path has been foreclosed," Cruz told a somber crowd in Indianapolis.

The campaign of Gov. John Kasich, who has won only in his home state of Ohio, said in a Facebook post: "Tonight's results are not going to alter Gov. Kasich's campaign plans. Our strategy has been and continues to be one that involves winning the nomination at an open convention." Kasich trails Trump by nearly 900 delegates.

Only about half of Indiana's Republican primary voters said they were excited or optimistic about any of their remaining candidates becoming president, according to exit polling conducted by Edison Research for The Associated Press and television networks. Still, most said they probably would support the GOP winner.

Clinton, too, needs to win over Sanders' enthusiastic supporters. The Vermont senator has cultivated a deeply loyal following, particularly among young people, whom Democrats count on in the general election.

Sanders has conceded his strategy hinges on persuading superdelegates to back him over the former secretary of state. Superdelegates are Democratic Party insiders who can support the candidate of their choice, regardless of how their states vote. And they favor Clinton by a nearly 18-1 margin.

With Sanders' narrow victory Tuesday, he picked up at least 43 of Indiana's 83 delegates. Clinton now has 2,202 delegates to Sanders' 1,400. That includes pledged delegates from primaries and caucuses, as well as superdelegates.

Trump now has at least 1,047 delegates. Cruz exits the race with 565, while Kasich has 152.

___

Pace reported from Washington. Associated Press writer Stephen Ohlemacher contributed to this report from Washington.

___

Follow Julie Pace and Scott Bauer on Twitter at: http://twitter.com/jpaceDCand http://twitter.com/sbauerAP

COMMENTS

The 5 Stages of Political Death by Donald Trump

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by MATTHEW PALUMBO3 May 2016995

The phenomenon that is Donald Trump and the Trump candidacy is historic. It has created an election and an atmosphere that we could go another century without seeing again.

Given that Donald Trump is the Haley’s Comet of American politics, no political science playbook or textbook or game plan exists on how to handle this phenomenon. From day 1, Donald Trump has baffled pundits, experts, strategists, analysts; and just about everyone else paying attention.

The efficacy of the Trump campaign to this point is attributable to Mr. Trump’s unpredictability and unconventionality. They call the study of politics and campaign management in academia “Political Science” for a reason. It doesn’t just exist to give future law students an easy major. Much like hard sciences, the political scientist likes to deal in theory or law with best practices, related to distinct causes and effects, tested over time in the laboratory.

But don’t expect to see any test tubes and microscopes. Politicos use public opinion, focus groups, conventional wisdom, and statistical analysis in their laboratory.

Donald Trump and his campaign has not only never entered the political laboratory — he’s burned it to the ground.

What is evident however is that a pattern has developed in the manner in which Donald Trump has dispatched his opponents — in the case of Jeb Bush, with nothing more than an adjective. One by one, his 16 opponents in the quest for the GOP nomination have vanished.

Each of these opponents was unique in their interactions with Trump over the course of the campaign. But in examining these interactions and how they have been portrayed in the media and evaluated by the court of public opinion, Trump’s opponents have met their demise to what I call: “ The 5 Stages of Political Death by Trump.”

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Here are the stages:

Stage 1: Under Estimation

Hubris and ego are most prevalent in this stage as Trump’s opponents discount his business acumen and question his vast wealth and how he amassed it. Collectively they discount any chance he has for any type of success because he is after all a political novice and lacks the instincts needed to achieve. They ridicule his appearance, his hit TV show, and overall competence.

Stage 2: Placation

After they’ve gotten past Stage 1, the Trump opponent begins to realize that maybe Trump does have some appeal. During this stage advisers will tell the Trump opponent to “stay above the fray,” or “to keep doing your own thing,” or respond when asked about Trump with general platitudes like, “I couldn’t care less about Trump.” Essentially you are just trying to stay out of his gaze, and thus stay out of his crosshairs. Your grandpa called it, “whistling past the graveyard” — at least mine did.

Stage 3: Manipulation

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When their strategy in Stage 2 proves unsuccessful, Trump’s opponents attempt to manipulate him and diminish his rising poll numbers and momentum by impacting his campaign with external forces. Examples of this have been the eminent domain argument, the KKK attacks and focusing on his past donations to Democrats (though they never seem to mention that Hillary Clinton was once a Republican). Hyperbolic labeling is popular during this phase, as comparisons of Trump are made by his opponents to some of histories most divisive and infamous characters.

Stage 4: Frustration

After Trump utilizes his broad populist appeal to stave off the manipulative, coordinated attacks from Stage 3, good old fashioned frustration sets in. “How could people be so dumb?” and “Trump appeals to the low information voter” are typically the types of sound bites that you will hear during this stage — ironically, especially so from Democrats, claiming to represent the “common man.” During this phase you’ll also see Trump opponents make wholesale changes in their staff. Like the cherry blossoms in spring, denial is in full bloom during Stage 4.

Stage 5: Hate

Like a pot full of boiling water with the stove still on high, Trump’s opponents become enraged, unable to grasp how they could be losing to the incompetent novice whom they had foolishly under estimated in Stage 1. During this stage the Trump opponent begins to deviate from their disciplined style of campaigning and they begin to make rash, reckless decisions. Their hand has been forced by Trump, never a good situation for a candidate to be in. This stage signals that political death is near.

With the GOP nomination all but wrapped up for Donald Trump, and his delegate count surging toward 1237, many are now looking toward the general election and the match up with Hillary Clinton. For those of you scoring at home, Hillary and DNC Chair Debbie Wasserman Schultz are currently vacillating between Stages 1,2, and 3.

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Ted Cruz DROPS OUT of presidential race

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Ted Cruz is quitting the presidential race, according to campaign manager Jeff Roe, ending one of the best-organized campaigns of 2016 after a series of stinging defeats left Donald Trump as the only candidate capable of clinching the nomination outright.

Cruz had appeared likely to go all the way to the Republican convention, but a string of massive losses in the Northeast, and his subsequent defeat in Indiana, appear to have convinced him there’s no way forward.

John Kasich, however, pledged on Tuesday night to stay in the race until a candidate reaches 1,237 bound delegates.

From the start, Cruz has premised his candidacy on the idea that 2016 would be an election driven by resentment toward the established GOP order. It was a strategy that looked prescient as Cruz steadily rose in the polls throughout 2015 and broke into the top tier in Iowa in early 2016.

But what Cruz did not expect — what no one expected — is that he would be outmatched and outstripped in outsider anger by Trump. Cruz had maintained a fragile truce with Trump all of last year, but by the time he turned on the front-runner, the Manhattan businessman had already captured the voters Cruz was hoping would fuel his candidacy.

Cruz lost Indiana after pulling out all the stops: he struck a nonaggression pact with John Kasich. He bought TV ads. His supportive super PACs bought TV ads. He blitzed the Sunday shows. He barnstormed the state on a bus tour. He got the governor’s endorsement. He even named his running mate.

Losing despite all that represented the final nail in the coffin of Cruz’s months-long claim that conservatives were coalescing around his insurgent candidacy.

In early 2016, it had appeared that Cruz had executed masterfully his plan to consolidate conservatives and emerge as Trump’s main rival. In Iowa, he drove Govs. Rick Perry, Bobby Jindal and Scott Walker out of the race before the caucuses — and then crushed the two reigning winners, Mike Huckabee and Rick Santorum, on caucus day.

Even as he exited the race, Cruz had far surpassed most expectations in 2016, particularly in fundraising, as he tapped both big donors and an army of small ones as he became one of the race’s best-financed candidates. His constellation of super PACs raised the second most to Jeb Bush among Republicans last year. And ahead of super Tuesday, his campaign bragged about more than 200,000 volunteers nationwide.

For a 45-year-old only halfway through his first term in the Senate, those could be the building blocks of the future, especially for a Republican Party that, until 2016 at least, had long rewarded candidates seasoned by previous losing campaigns.

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Bill Kristol: I’m A Never Trump Guy, But ‘I’ll Say Never Say Never’

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by PAM KEY2 May 2016253

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Monday on Newsmax TV’s “The Steve 

Malzberg Show,” Weekly Standard editor Bill Kristol, who is a self-described member of the “never Trump” movement, was asked if there’s anything GOP presidential front-runner Donald Trump could do to win him over. Kristol said he was “never Trump,” but added a “never say nyever” caveat.

Kristol said, “For me it’s more of a matter of character. I don’t know that you can change your character at age 69, and given the things he’s said even very recently about other people, the way he demeans other people. But I mean, I guess never say never. On the one hand, I’ll say never Trump, and on the other hand, I’ll say never say never and I’ll leave it ambiguous.”

Follow Pam Key on Twitter @pamkeyNEN

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Breitbart TV, 2016 Presidential Race, Donald Trump, Bill Kristol